Rallies in north Lebanon after child and grandmother killed in hit-and-run

Palestinians in a north Lebanon refugee camp Monday demonstrated against the UN’s refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), which they blamed for the death of a five-year-old Palestinian girl and her grandmother.

The National News Agency said that refugees in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp blocked the main road at the entrance of the camp after Israa Ismail and her grandmother succumbed to their wounds at the al-Khair Hospital in Minyeh. Israa and her grandmother, Widad Mustapha, were hit by a car on the Muhammara highway.

Hamas leader Ahmad al-Asadi, in charge of the Nahr al-Bared file, denounced the conditions endured by the Palestinian refugees in Lebanese camps. Shortly before the casualties’ breathed their last, their families appealed to the Lebanese Health Minister, Wael Abu Faour, and the UNRWA to urgently step in.

But none of those parties responded. He added in a statement that Israa passed away after she had spent over two hours at al-Khair hospital waiting to be transferred to another facility, as she required the assistance of a respirator. Rallies are expected to be held outside the UNRWA offices in Lebanon in protest at the agency’s reduction of its health services.